For almost a week now we have had no car. This has restricted the options for photography but not eliminated them. The Dippers are only a long walk away; with them we have seen Grey Wagtail and a male Kingfisher so all three UK birds associated with streams. I have taken some video of the singing Dipper.

The other "easy" option is to feed the ducks. We don't have a pond within easy reach and there's not a great variety on the river but as well as the ubiquitous Mallard we have Goosander. Ducks outnumber drakes so I have shown the wonderful drake opposite.

Our local lochs have been ice free this winter so we visited one to look for wintering ducks and water birds on a recent sunny day. We were not disappointed with good numbers of Tufted Ducks, Mallards, Goldeneyes and Pochard as well as a Scaup and a Smew to get 2012 off to a good start. The Moorhens seemed to be displaying already, as were the Great Crested Grebes, despite still being in their winter plumage, and some of the Mute Swans were showing off too.

Later at the coast we found a flock of uncommon Pintail and Wigeon taking shelter in a bay, whilst a roost of Dunlin, Sanderling and Ring Plovers braved the windy beach.

Author

Eric & Lesley McCabePerth, Scotland.Having both worked in the computer industry for a number of years we now have time to devote to our passion, namely wildlife photography. We like all subjects but usually concentrate on birds throughout the year, buttterflies and Dragonflies in the warmer months and moths sporadically.